GNP Computers Begins its European Roll Out; Opens its First Sales and Support Office in the United Kingdom

Business Wire, June 11, 2001

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

MONROVIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 2001

GNP Computers, a leader in engineering, manufacturing and systems integration services for the teledatacom(TM) industry, today announced the opening of its first European office.

Based in Swindon, England, GNP Computers U.K. will provide sales, technical support and account management services for the company's European customers.

"Our primary motivation for this expansion was to address business opportunities in Europe and to provide local technical support," said Roger Baar, Ph.D., GNP's CEO and president.

"We had been approached by numerous European telecommunications equipment vendors who wanted to leverage our Rapid Product Realization services, which include design, integration, procurement, manufacturing and support. We knew that we would need a local presence to provide the quick response time and commitment to customer satisfaction that differentiate our services."

Phil Coates, GNP's vice president, sales and marketing, added: "Support for GNP's move into Europe has been so strong that we accelerated our initial expansion plans by about nine months to meet specific customer demand. We selected the U.K. as our base of operations because it is central to most of the major European Network Equipment Providers."

GNP will target all European countries in which major telecommunications equipment vendors are located. As its business expands, it will open additional locations that are close to its major customers.

Stuart Brown, the company's new European sales manager, heads GNP Computers U.K. "We are delighted to have Stuart on board," said Coates.

"He shares our strong commitment to customer service and brings a wealth of telecom management and sales experience to the company. In his new position, Brown will be responsible for GNP's sales in Europe, providing a local point of contact for existing customers and managing the support operations."

Brown joins GNP from Cisco Systems where he served in positions of increasing responsibility, progressing from a business development manager to market development manager and area sales manager, service provider in just 2-1/2 years.

While at Cisco Systems, Brown managed many of the company's strategic alliances, partnerships and key initiatives. Prior to its acquisition by Cisco Systems, Brown was sales manager, EMEA, for Summa Four Ltd., a manufacturer of open programmable telecommunications switch platforms.

GNP's new European office is located at 6 Gartons Road, Middleleaze, Swindon SN5 9TR, U.K. Tel: 44 7831 529 858.

About GNP Computers

GNP Computers is a premier integrator for the international teledatacom(TM) market, creating and integrating UNIX-based system solutions for global communications. The company designs, manufactures and customizes open systems platforms to deliver true carrier class solutions for telecommunications networks.

GNP achieves rapid time to market by using pre-tested Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology where appropriate and system building blocks of its own design that fill gaps in COTS offerings.

It offers a family of SPARC-, PowerPC- and Intel-based high availability server products, products for the Central Office and data networking environments, and CompactPCI(R) products for high-speed telecommunications and networking applications, as well as a multi-node computer operating environment -- the Continuant Cluster Suite(TM) -- for use in telecommunications switching applications.

The company provides custom Rapid Product Realization Services, systems integration and telecommunications systems engineering to help speed products to market. GNP has created numerous strategic relationships with a variety of companies offering complementary products and services, including Sun Microsystems and Motorola.

ISO-9001 certified, GNP is privately held with worldwide headquarters in Monrovia and European operations located in Swindon. For more information on GNP Computers' products and services, visit the company Web site at www.gnp.com.

Note to Editors: GNP Computers is a trademark of GNP Computers. All other brand names and trademarks are properties of their respective holders.